Word on the street here, almost everyone who knows much about Canada's defense needs wants to axe the F-35. Honestly, if we're in a big enough fight where the F-35s stealth characteristics are needed, we're gonna be fighting along with the US and they will have taken out the triple a and most of the big SAMs already. Most of our patrolling is NATO based or Canadian airspace enforcement. The odd time we're doing actual combat is generally as a coalition or with at least the US and Britain.

After that almost any of the 4th/4/5 gen fighters would do the job with a real preference for something with long range that can carry a decent # of AAMs. Either the F-18E/F or one of the new Eagle variants would do just fine from US products, and I suspect the Rafale and Typhoon and mebbe even the Gripen to contend. I strongly suspect that if we don't get the F-35 in the end anyway (Strongest probability in the end) we'll end up going with the SuperHornet. Political realities being what they are, Northrop Grumman needs the orders.

Public Services and Procurement Canada announced on November 18, 2015 the results of the pre-qualification process, the first step in the competitive procurement process to select a Combat Systems Integrator and a Warship Designer for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC).

For the Combat Systems Integrator, the pre-qualified firms are:

Atlas Elektronik GmbH

DCNS SA

Lockheed Martin Canada

Saab Australia Pty Ltd.

Selex ES S.p.A.

Thales Nederland B.V.

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH

For the Warship Designer, the pre-qualified firms are:

Alion-JJMA Corp.

BAE Systems Surface Ships Limited

DCNS SA

Fincantieri S.p.A. Naval Vessels Business Unit

Navantia SA

Odense Maritime Technology

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH

The next step in the CSC procurement process calls for industry engagement sessions between Canada, Irving Shipbuilding (as the CSC Prime Contractor) and the pre-qualified firms to develop the Request for Proposals documents. The outcome of these competitive solicitations will be the selection of a Combat Systems Integrator and a Warship Designer who will become first-tier subcontractors to Irving Shipbuilding for the CSC Definition Contract, through which the CSC design will be developed to a production-ready state. The Definition Contract should be awarded to Irving Shipbuilding by early 2017

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government has quietly revised the framework for the navy's planned frigate replacement program, opting for a proven foreign design over a custom domestic blueprint.

Defence contractors were given details of the proposal on Tuesday, which is subject to industry feedback and final approval, expected later this year.

Lisa Campbell, the assistant deputy minister in the acquisitions branch at Public Services and Procurement Canada, said an evaluation has determined that there are existing warship designs that would meet Canadian needs and deciding to go in that direction "was a big step for us."

Commodore Art MacDonald said the navy has also refined its requirements for the advanced warships, on which Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax is expected to begin construction some time around 2020.

In addition, the federal government will run only one competition for building both the ship and installing the sophisticated electronics, instead of doing it separately, as originally planned.

Campbell said those decisions will help not only speed up the shipbuilding process, which has been proceeding at a glacial pace, but could help control costs down the road.

When originally conceived, the Harper government estimated the cost of building 15 warships would be in the range of $26 billion, but internal documents and published reports last fall suggested the price tag could go as high as $40 billion.

Relying on a proven, off-the-shelf warship design from another country takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the planning process, Campbell said.

"We don't know the actual cost per ship yet," she said in an interview. "We're not talking about a custom build anymore. We're talking about existing designs .... and in our view that is likely to have an impact on diminishing all sorts of risks."

There would be, however, some modifications to the design to suit unique Canadian requirements. The process is not unlike the one followed when the Harper government selected a German design for the navy's soon-to-be-built joint supply ships.